Agricultural balers have been used to consolidate and package crop material to facilitate the storage and handling of the crop material for later use. Typically, a mower-conditioner cuts and conditions the crop material for windrow drying in the sun. When the cut crop material is properly dried, a baler, for example a round baler, the most frequently used in industry, travels along the windrows to pick up the crop material and form the material into cylindrically-shaped round bales.
More specifically, the cut crop material is gathered at the front of the baler from along the ground, onto a pickup assembly, and introduced into a bale-forming chamber within the baler. Inside the cut crop is rolled up into a predetermined size. A conventional bale chamber may include a pair of opposing sidewalls with a series of belts, chains, and/or rolls that rotate and compress the crop material into the cylindrically-shaped round bale. When the predetermined size is achieved, the cylindrically-shaped round bale is wrapped and bound by net wrapping or other wrapping such as plastic wrapping and wire. After the round bale is wrapped, the back of the baler, or tailgate assembly, opens and the wrapped bale is discharged.
Some conventional balers include tailgate assemblies having sidewalls, rolls to secure belts which go around the bale, a belt guide mechanism to connect the rolls and a rear shield coupled to the sidewalls to prevent the operator from contacting the moving belts and other moving parts during operation. The belt guide mechanism in these conventional tailgate assemblies rises up to allow the bale to be ejected from the chamber. The sidewalls and the rear shield that is coupled to the sidewalls are also raised up with the belt guide mechanism to continue to prevent the operator from contacting the moving belts during operation while the belt guide mechanism is raised. In these conventional balers, however, the sidewalls of the tailgate are fixed to the baler mainframe and do not raise up with the belt guide mechanism and the rolls to allow the bale to be ejected from the baler. In other conventional balers, the belt guide mechanism is coupled directly to the baler frame. In these conventional balers, the baler frame does not rise up with the belt guide mechanism and the rolls to allow the bale to be ejected from the baler.
Accordingly, an improved method and system for raising the rear shield with the belt guide mechanism is needed.